Trend report for ATTD 6210 Class - Workplace Diversity Issue.

1. Talkin’ ‘Bout My
Generation…
Generational Impact for
Workplace Culture
ATTD 6210 Trend Report #2
Laura Pasquini

2. The Generations
✦ Defining the Generations
✦ Differences & Similarities
✦ Effective leadership and
learning styles
✦ Implications in for Education
Workplace & Culture
✦ Key Points to Consider

3. The Generations
✦ The Silent (Veteran)
Generation (born 1929-
1945)
✦ Baby Boomers (born
1946-1965)
✦ Generation X (born 1965-
1981)
✦ Generation Y (born 1982-
1999)
Rowe, K.A. (2010, March). Managing Across Generations. Infoline:
Tips, Tools, and Intelligence for Trainers. Volume 27, Issue 1003.

4. The Silent Generation

5. The Silent GenerationAttitudes
• Trust
• Privacy
• Conformity
• Faith in institutions
• Respect for authority
• Patience
• Responsibility before
pleasure
• Formality
• Social order
Contributions
• Consistent
• Detail oriented
• Non-complaining
• Mediators & facilitators
• Commitment
Cautions
-May not see "gray" - mostly
black & white
-Assume "no news is good news“
-May sound parental
-Often complacent when they
disagree
The Silent Generation
(a.k.a. Veterans)

6. Baby Boomers

7. Baby Boomers
✦ experimental
✦ individualism
✦ free spirited
✦ social cause oriented
✦ less optimistic
✦ distrust of government
✦ general cynicism
✦ Baby Boomer from Wikipedia

8. Douglas Coupland
Generation X

9. Generation X
✦ resourceful and hardworking
✦ meet commitments
✦ value self-reliance
✦ well-honed survival skills
✦ nurtures networks
✦ are comfortable in a global and digital world
✦ adopted the collaborative technology
Guiding Generation X to Lead, ASTD

10. Generation X✦ has an unconscious acceptance of diversity
✦ ability to redefine issues & question reality
✦ skeptical and innovative
✦ look for different ways to move forward
✦ prepared to serve as pragmatic managers
✦ options thinkers – like choices
✦ like to develop multiple skills because that
provides them with the opportunity to move
in various directions
Guiding Generation X to Lead, ASTD

11. Generation Y

12. Generation Y
✦ Close to family
✦ Attentive and respectful
✦ Programmed
✦ Team oriented
✦ Pressured to succeed
✦ Involved
✦ Egalitarian
✦ Use technology
✦Stressed
✦Multi-taskers
✦Socially conscious
✦Inclusive
✦Powerful
✦Impatient
✦Active/hands-on learners
The Millennial Generation - Generation Y

13. How Millennial Are
YOU?
Take the Quiz:
http://pewresearch.org/millennials/qui
z/
I am surrounded by Generation Y - so it’s no surprise that I scored
93%

14. Millennial Inc. White Paper

15. Implications for Practice
✦ Buckingham (Galagan, 2008) suggests
management considers the strength solution
process, which focuses on having employees work
and develop their strengths to better support the
needs of the organization. In application, this
concept has the ability to reach all generations in
the workplace and optimize productivity for
employees. The reinforcement of utilizing ones
strengths provides motivation and empowerment
for those contributing to the organizational goals.
• Galagan, P. (2010, August). Engaging Generation Y: An interview with Marcus
Buckingham. ASTD Training + Development Magazine.

16. Leaders in the Field
✦ Neil Howe
✦ William Strauss
✦ LifeCourse
✦ http://www.lifecourse.com/

17. LifeCourse Associates
✦ The LifeCourse Associates interpret the
qualitative nature of a generation’s collective
persona to help managers and marketers
leverage quantitative data in new and
remarkable ways—and to lend order,
meaning, and predictability to national
trends. They design products and services
help companies, government agencies,
educational institutions, and non-profits
solve marketing and workplace problems
and exploit strategic opportunities.

18. A Future Read...
✦ Don Tapscott
✦ Author of:
✦ Wikinomics
✦ Growing Up Digital
✦ Macrowikinomics
✦ http://dontapscott.com/blog/

19. Embrace the Net Generation
✦ Net Generation might initially be thought to be a burden,
however they are an incredibly capable, talented group of
people who want to be challenged and come to the
workforce highly prepared. Gen Y find value in learning and
mentoring with other generations at the workplace as they
value collaboration and communication. Organizations
should initiate a relationship rather then recruit, engage
rather than just train, build collaborative work systems
rather than just supervise, and evolve with the working
relationship rather than just retain (Tapscott, 2009).

20. Encourage Relationships
Between Generations

21. Implications for the Workplace
✦ As more generations work side-by-side, there will
be a few areas for management to consider for the
organization. The competition for talent will be
initially addressed in the array of benefits to attract
the top talent from across the generations (Rowe,
2010). It is also costly to replace experienced and
skilled labor. Organizations need to create
programs to encourage workers to stay or partially
retire to help employee retention of mature
workers.

22. Suggested
Practices
for Any
Generation

23. How Wide Is the Generation Gap?
✦ Building collaboration across the
generations with different work values
may be difficult for some & provide
opportunities for others.
✦ Diversity allows for better problem
solving, greater innovation & improved
performance improvement.
✦ Critical for organizations to appreciate the
differences and strengths each
generation will bring to to the table
✦ It is important to review and assess if
generational differences are impacting
the workplace, and plan for strategies to
help improve the generation gap.

24. Thoughts To Ponder...
✦ How will employers embrace
generational differences?
✦ How will different generations
impact the workplace?
✦ What will the idea
multigenerational workplace
look like?

26. Approaches for Multiple
Generations:
✦ communicating information in multiple ways
✦ promoting collaborative discussion, decision making or problem solving
✦ using team-building activities
✦ offering different types of training to accommodate different generations
✦ creating mentoring program between generations
✦ training managers on dealing with generational differences
2004 SRHM Research: Generational
Differences

28. Key Points for Trend
✦ Define what engagement means at your
company
✦ Conducting an organizational audit,
gathering data, implementing a force field
analysis, identifying action steps, and setting
objectives and metrics for individuals and
the organization.
✦ Shifts in age demographics of the workforce
is a compelling issue, such as brain drain,
responding to the marketplace, surplus and
shortages in the labor force.

29. Key Trends Continued...
✦ Access to the flexibility needed to fulfill work and family
responsibilities is one factor that is associated with higher
levels of engagement among Gen Y employees.
✦ Supervisor support is one factor that is associated with
higher levels of engagement among older Baby Boomers
and Traditionalists.
✦ All generations have similar values. In fact, they all value
family the most. They also attach importance to integrity,
achievement, love and competence.
✦ Trust matters. Distrust of the organization and in upper
management is prevalent among all age groups.
✦ No one really likes change. resistance to change has
nothing to do with age; it is all about how much one has to
gain or lose within the change.

30. More Key Trends✦ Feedback can come in many forms, and all generations
want to know how they are performing.
✦ Organizations are benefiting as the different generations
work effectively together.
✦ Economic meltdown intensified generational conflicts in
organizations.
✦ Conflicts in the workplace are due to influence and power &
negative stereotypes about each generation
✦ Generations have similar values and desires.
✦ Organizations need to make sure that employees of all
generations are heard and feel respected.
✦ The generation gap at work is really wide with vast
discrepancies when it comes to what the appropriate use of
technology.

31. Questions & Comments